


In the Light of the Moon

by Dragonlies



Category: The Adventure Zone (Podcast)
Genre: Canon Compliant, F/M, Light Angst, Not Beta Read, Other characters appear but aren't that important
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-04-28
Updated: 2020-04-28
Packaged: 2021-03-02 02:41:43
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,364
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23897689
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Dragonlies/pseuds/Dragonlies
Summary: The perspective of a Bureau employee throughout Balance.
Relationships: Magic Brian/Magic Brian's Fiancé
Kudos: 3





	In the Light of the Moon

**Author's Note:**

> I wrote most of this nearly a year ago and decided to finish it due to quarantine. I didn't check to see if most of the stuff in here was accurate beyond my memory of events, so there are probably some minor inaccuracies.

When Caramip looked up and saw the voidfish for the first time it felt like trying to breath infinity. She took a moment to calm herself and tasted the ichor lingering on her tongue.

“I… remember it now.” Johan directed her to the Director and things made more sense. They made less sense when she saw Davenport for the first time and the Director evaded giving a straight answer about whatever the fuck was up with _that_ , but it was fine. She was good at figuring things out herself. That was why she was a Seeker, after all.

-

When she first met Brian he asked her how tall she was. She kicked his shins before telling him. He introduced her to his girlfriend Rosa, who was perfectly nice. Caramip told them her name was Caramip Ningel, she’d learned not to use too many names with other races, but said Rosa could call her Nim if she wanted.

Brian asked if he could call her Nim too. She kicked his shin again before telling him he could. Rosa smiled at that and invited Nim to dinner.

-

Brian got a pet spider and named him Bryan. The Director was mad but technically the rules didn’t disallow giant magical spiders. (Just dogs.) Rosa was worried that they’d get confused about who was who. It was obvious to Nim what the solution was. Just give them more names. When she voiced this both turned to look at her in confusion. She rolled her eyes before pointing to Brian.

“Magic Brian,” she pointed to Bryan “Spider Bryan.” Rosa’s eyes lit up. Magic Brian decided to complain about it to Spider Bryan.

-

Rosa proposed to Magic Brian. She asked Nim if she wanted to be the flower girl. She cast a sideways glance at Magic Brian and wondered aloud if she was too old for that, oh well, at least she was short enough. Magic Brian flushed and Rosa started laughing. (It was good.)

-

Nim awoke to frantic knocking at the door to her dorm. She opened it to Rosa standing there with barely restrained panic. 

“Magic Brian’s missing, so’s Spider Bryan.” Nim quickly pulled on a few clothes to make himself presentable before they rushed to find the Director. They burst into the main room.

Nim knew what had happened when she saw Killian speaking to the Director.

“Ah, Rosa, Caramip, some bad news has just come in about Brian,” Nim took a step back, this wasn’t good. Her eyes landed on Davenport and she thought about the voidfish. (Brian would—)

“Brian wouldn’t—he wouldn’t just _do_ this!” Oh, they’d been talking. Nim hadn’t felt this sick since she’d first landed on the moon base.

“I’m sorry Rosa. I’m sure this is a difficult time for you, Killian you may head out now, but you must understand that—” Killian left the room. Nim stared at her bracer, the same one Brian still had.

“I don’t have to understand _shit!”_

“Rosa please…” Nim whispered. Rosa whirled on her,

“Nim! You know what I mean right?! Brian wouldn’t just—”

“I’m sorry.” Nim fled from the room and stopped near the edge of the moon. There, she let the tears fall.

-

When she heard about what happened in Wave Echo Cave she nearly cried again. When she heard about what happened to Phandalin she just felt sick. She watched the new Reclaimers’ test. She almost hated them for what they’d done to her best friend. She brushed past Killian when she tried to talk to her. (And ignored the pitying expression on her face.)

-

Lemmon Kessler was dead and it seemed like no one cared. Sure he wasn’t Johan or Avi or Boyland but people _knew_ him. (Just like they knew Brian.) They barely mourned and cheered for the Reclaimers when they came back with the Oculus. Caramip couldn’t bring herself to play at happiness. 

-

Caramip learned about Captain Bane’s betrayal when all the Reclaimers were reassigned. She had a partner now. A genasi named Josh. He wasn’t too pleased with his new job position. When she’d first tried to introduce herself he’d snipped at her, saying stuff about how maybe _she_ was happy to be a stupid Seeker but that _he_ had always been destined for greater stuff. 

She’d kicked him in the shins and told him to shut up and take it up with the Director. (It wasn’t in good fun anymore.)

-

Caramip left the room after hearing about Lucas. Sure he was a dick, but he’d never been a _bad guy._ He’d helped the Director found the Bureau. It felt _wrong_ to watch the Reclaimers and the Regulators head off to stop him.

When she got the news about Boyland she left the room again. Not to wallow in silence this time, but to throw up. Through the whole funeral she couldn’t shake the tiny voice whispering in her head.

“We’re dropping like flies,”

-

She’d seen the burnt wall after Angus’s magic lesson. Caramip didn’t know why Taako had bothered creating letters with fire. She might've thought it was just a joke if not for how confused he’d seemed when it happened. As good as he (probably) was at other things, (if his job was actually an indication of his competence and not some weird ability to resist mind control (she was withholding judgement until she got more data)) he was a terrible actor. 

So, something was up. But wasn’t that always the case.

-

She didn’t know how the Reclaimers (and wasn’t it weird that she could refer to three people with a title that used to be for over fifty) had gotten the chalice. They’d gone down to the surface and just a little bit over an hour later they’d come back up with the relic. It was weird, and she didn’t like it. She didn’t like not knowing. With the other relics, there’d been announcements about what happened, or at least it was easy to guess. But Caramip (with Rosa mad no one called her Nim anymore) didn’t have time to worry about the chalice. The Director was rushing them to find the final relic (and _final_ (wasn’t there still two left?)) as soon as possible. She didn’t understand what the rush was, they never found the relics before something went wrong anyway, what did another few weeks matter. 

-

Everyone at the Bureau had panicked when the Reclaimers’ stones went out. The Director had been the most uncomposed Caramip had ever seen her. (A tiny part of Caramip that never quite went away felt vindictive pleasure at the thought that the Reclaimers (they killed her _friend)_ might be dead.)

Of course, they did come back eventually, though with one gone. (The tiny part of Caramip got a little smaller upon seeing Carey cry.) And then everything went to shit. 

-

Caramip tried to hold off the strange fuzzy things that surrounded her, but it was really hard when she couldn’t _see what she was fighting._ She had to find Rosa. Rosa had plenty of area spells and Caramip could heal her. It didn’t matter if she could see what they were fighting because she could just focus on Rosa. 

(But she was too late)

She did find Rosa. She found her lying in a pool of her own blood, eyes blank. 

“No, no, no.” She ran closer, desperately praying to whatever god listening that her eyes were deceiving her. She slid to a stop on her knees, hovering her hands over Rosa’s chest as if it would do anything. It was too late for Revivify, she could tell. 

She yelled. Brambles burst from the fake earth around her and formed a slight barrier. She could sense the attacking force trying to get through her barricade, but the thorns were sharpened by her rage and they _would not pass._

“Calm down Caramip,” said the voice inside that had forced her into complacency when Brian died. But she wouldn’t calm down. She was Caramip _fucking_ Ningel and her mother called her Greenheart, her uncle called her Edelweiss, and Rosa had called her _Nim._

She wasn’t going to calm down until every last scrap of this attacker was erased from existence. 


End file.
